Saturday, August 23, 2008

Obama Biden 08 - Amtrak Ticket

I'd like to add to the comment on MyDD on economics and Joe Biden, who is now the VP pick for Obama.

While he embodies a lot of things about Washington -- he's been there for a long time, of course -- he has commuted to and from his home in Deleware ever since being elected rather than maintaining primary residence inside the Beltway like so many others on Capitol Hill. Even the city he was born in -- Scranton, Pennsylvania -- kind of embodies this connection to working Americans.

7 comments:

I've spent the past 8 years seeing nothing done in the country. Nothing. I honestly cannot think of anything in this country that has changed since 2000.

In transit what have we gotten since 2000? A measily couple of light rail lines in mid-sized cities?

Hopefully a democratic administration will get real on getting the country moving. I will say, though -- it's unlikely that any political leader can do anything to stimulate transit -- regardless of his mandate in November -- unless people decide to make it a priority.

I'm happy that Biden, and in fact all the Delaware congressional delegation, commute regularly on Amtrak. I'm also happy that Delaware has SEPTA commuter rail.

What I don't understand is why, with a relatively powerful congressional delegation, they don't have good transit everywhere in the state. It's a tiny state. How much would it cost to have every resident of the state living within a mile of a rapid transit line?

Robert: nothing? Really? What about the Gold Line in LA, and the eastside extension which got approved and mostly built? What about the Expo Line, also now finally getting built. What about Houston, Minneapolis, Charlotte? Or the Mission Valley East extension in San Diego and the Sprinter from Oceanside to Escondido? What about the Caltrain express tracks and Baby Bullet service? Or the expansion of the Capitol Corridor from 9 round trips to 16? Or the brand new commuter rail lines in places like Salt Lake City and Albuquerque? The Bush Administration has, admittedly, been not so good for transit, but it's not the end of the world. And Obama is not some transit messiah.

Not only did Biden commute back and forth everyday on Amtrak, but one of his sons is on the board of directors.http://boygabe.blogspot.com/2008/08/joe-biden-champion-of-amtrak.htmlEffective public transit is a major component of what makes cities "world-class". Thankfully we have two people who would seem to understand that, both at the regional and city scale.

I'm transitioning my writing over to my other site which was previously called The Direct Transfer. People seemed to be confused by the differences in brand between The Overhead Wire and The Direct Transfer so I made a change and combined the two as The Overhead Wire.

This page will continue to be here and will still be updated sparingly as it has over the last few years, however new original analysis and writing will be featured at TheOverheadWire.com in addition to the news archive and The Overhead Wire Daily email.